If you have a Nest Cam, of whichever flavour, LED lights and chimes will inform you of its current status. But what do they all mean and can you switch them off?

What do the lights mean: Nest Cam Outdoor & Indoor

Both the outdoor and indoor Nest Cams have a single LED light just above the camera lens.

Solid green

Everything is working normally – your Nest Cam is turned on, connected to a Wi-Fi network and is happily streaming video.

Solid blue

The Nest Cam is booting up or rebooting. This happens when you first plug your camera into a power socket, when your camera is restarting after a power cut or firmware update, or is waiting to be added to an account.

Solid yellow

The Nest Cam is having trouble connecting to your Wi-Fi.

Blinking green

Someone is watching the live video stream remotely with the Nest app or via the Nest website.

Blinking blue

During normal operation, this means someone is watching the live video stream with the Nest app and speaking remotely through the speaker.

During setup, this means the Nest Cam is connecting to a Wi-Fi network or completing setup over Bluetooth. Once setup is complete, the light will turn solid green.

What do the lights mean: Nest Cam IQ

The Nest Cam IQ has two different LEDs – a small status light near the bottom of the lens and a larger light ring surrounding the lens.

Status light – solid green

Everything is working normally – your Nest Cam is turned on, connected to a Wi-Fi network and is happily streaming video.

Status light – slowly blinking green

Someone is watching the live video stream remotely with the Nest app or via the Nest website.

Status light – blinking green

The Nest Cam is having trouble connecting to your Wi-Fi.

Status light – solid blue; light ring – blinking blue

Someone is watching the live video stream with the Nest app and speaking remotely through the speaker.

Status light – off; light ring – blinks blue once

The Nest Cam is booting up or rebooting. This happens when you first plug your camera into a power socket, when your camera is restarting after a factory reset or when it’s waiting to be added to your Nest account.

Status light – off; light ring – blinks yellow once

When you’re setting up your camera for the first time, the light ring might pulse yellow once if your camera had trouble connecting to the Nest service or completing setup.

Status light – off; light ring – blinks red once

Your camera is plugged in but there’s not enough power for it to work correctly.

How to turn the status lights off

If you want your camera to be less noticeable, or if the status light is too bright at night, you can turn them off from within the Nest app:

Select your camera from the Nest app home screen

Click the settings icon (the cog in the corner)

Scroll down and select the “Status light” option

You can now choose under which circumstances the light will come on. Even if switched off, the light may come back on to inform you of important status information, however.

What do the sounds mean?

All of the cameras in the Nest range have a single sound – a soft chime. This indicates that someone is about to use the “Talk & Listen” feature – essentially using the Nest app or website to speak to somebody via the camera.

How to turn the sound off

If you don’t want anybody to know when you’re speaking to them via the camera, you can switch off the “chime”: